Chirp, Chirp, Chirp...

We have been playing outside, celebrating birthdays, visiting with family and generally living life. Cystic Fibrosis has been in the back of our minds, no longer in the front of our minds. Therefore, the blog has sat quietly, all alone.

Oliver's third birthday was Tuesday. We had family come to town to celebrate and have been busy with his third birthday party. Brian's birthday is Monday and have enjoyed celebrating his birthday this weekend as well.

Bennett has been doing fabulous! He is continuing to surprise us daily by his interest in food. Today, he cried until we gave him a part of a fruit gummy snack. He loved it! Foods he has recently enjoyed include hashbrowns, Reeses' cereal, mashed potatos and macaroni and cheese. He doesn't eat but a few bites of food each time, but his willingness to do so is incredibly promising. He loves to drink water from a sippy cup these days (which usually includes turning it upside down and pouring it on himself) and, tonight, let us brush his teeth. These are all big milestones for our once-orally-defensive g-tube baby!

And while we have yet to see Bennett's first step, he loves to randomly stand up on his own and test his balancing ability. He also wants to climb, climb, climb! If we forget to strap him in his stroller, he finds a way to stand up in the stroller to see better. Here's what happen today when we didn't strap him to his highchair:

(if you can't tell, he found a way to stand straight up! thankfully, he held on before we could sit him down!)

The other day, I was strolling through the grocery aisle when a woman who passed me said, "do you know your baby is standing up in his stroller?" I laughed and said, "yes, he won't sit down. I'm being careful. We are almost done." However, when I looked down, my heart skipped a beat to find him sitting on the edge of the stroller as content as could be. Obviously, I sat him down (he knows what "sit down" means) and strapped him in. But the moment reminded me how quickly kids gain motor skill confidence - esp when they shouldn't!

Things are going wonderfully here and we hope it will stay that way. Our greatest goals at this point are to continue his progress with his feeding issues and to keep Bennett from getting sick. Sickness is swarming around and among our friends and family so our prayer is that Bennett's health will continue to stay strong, especially as we head for Winter!